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STAGES OF BIKE RIDING:
1. Being able to ride bike at all
2. Riding bike along narrow alleyway
3. Riding bike at night
4. Riding bike alone at night
5. Riding bike alone at night along a narrow alleyway after having two
bottles of Smirnoff ice, a glass of beer, a sex-on-the-beach, a shot of
sake and a shot of shouchuu.
Yes, I can now ride a bike while pissed. I am proud.
Had a really fun evening with Yamanakasensei and his students. We went to
this tiny, very traditional restaurant slap bang next to the university,
which was great. It was a nomihoudai (all-you-can-drink) type place where
they also served a lot of food, including yakitori (roasted meat on kebab
sticks), takoyaki (breaded octopus), tako-salad (octopus salad), stuffed
aubergine, among other wonderful yummy Japanese dishes. Not to mention the
delicious drink - nihonshu (sake rice wine) prepared warm in a decanter, and
shouchu
(another form of sake) mixed with warm water (oyu) to keep you warm in the
cold night. Yamanakasensei once again asked me lots of things about
British culture, and was keen to tell me lots about Japanese culture too,
which was cool.
Because Nobukunisan bought me all the sweets last time, I had my parents
send some Terry's Chocolate Oranges over, which arrived yesterday (just in
time!). They went down really well - the students seemed to really like
the taste, as well as the way you have to bang the chocolate orange on the
table to break it into segments. Note to all British people: Chocolate
oranges seem to make good gifts in Japan!
What REALLY surprised me though, was at the end, Yamanakasensei and the
students insisted that they pay for me, because I was their guest! I was
really touched by this generosity. I don't care what anyone says, the
Japanese truly are hospitable people. And then, they even went to the
trouble of going back to the university to give me their email addresses
on a piece of paper! Wow! And THEN they invited me out for Bounenkai (new
year's eve.) I couldn't believe how nice they are!
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